Women For Obama

We're going to have to wade through a whole ocean of Village conventional wisdom this primary season, so it's hard to know where to begin. But the opening set of nonsense seems to be that because Barack Obama defeated a woman in the Democratic primary, he'll have some impossible task reaching Democratic women voters in the general election. This is actually demeaning to women voters, this suggestion that they are so emotionally attached and not rational thinkers with respect to electoral politics that they would vote against their own committed beliefs and interests. It's a big country and "women" voters represents about 60-70 million Americans, so there are going to be exceptions, but by and large Democratic women aren't fools and won't be running toward John McCain and his policies which hurt women who care about issues like public health, equal pay and a women's right to choose her own medical care.

Marilyn Authenreith, a mother of two in North Carolina, felt strongly about supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.

But once the former first lady quit the race, Authenreith switched allegiance to Barack Obama, mainly because she thinks that he -- unlike Republican John McCain -- will push for universal healthcare.

"I can't understand the thinking of how someone would jump from Hillary to McCain," she said. "It doesn't make any sense."

Now that the Democratic marathon is over, Clinton supporters like Authenreith are siding heavily with Obama over McCain, polls show. And Obama has taken a wide lead among female voters, belying months of political chatter and polls of primary voters suggesting that disappointment over Clinton's defeat might block the Illinois senator from enjoying his party's historic edge among women.

This was just made up by seven people at the major cable news nets, who just decided to uncritically parrot GOP talking points that women were fed up with Obama because he beat their gal. None of it had any basis in reality.

And for what it's worth, Obama himself is attentive to the issue.

Sen. Barack Obama hit back at Sen. John McCain's recent attempts to court women voters who flocked to Sen. Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid in droves.

. "On almost every single issue that's important to women, he's been on the wrong side," the presumptive Democratic nominee told ABC News in an interview in Flint, Mich. Monday.

"You know, he is in favor of judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade. He has opposed equal pay. He has opposed the CHIP [Children's Health Insurance] program, that would make children insured," Obama said.

In particular, choice could be a powerful and winning issue in the general election. Many moderates have no idea how radical McCain's position is on Roe. You will see crossover support for Obama as long as there's enough education around the issue.

Despite the fact that the national focus seems to be on the economy, among pro-choice Independent women, pro-choice Republican women, and liberal to moderate Republican women, the issue of abortion produces a larger advantage for Democrats than the economy, the war in Iraq, or health care. Moreover, among these three groups critiques on McCain’s anti-choice position are the strongest attacks against him, trumping attacks on the economy, the war, and special interests.

There are plenty more examples of this conventional wisdom taking hold without basis in reality. More infuriating than the fact that pundits focus almost entirely on horse-race politics is that they frequently get the horse race completely wrong.